Williams Sets Spaceflight Record;

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468
*Williams Sets Spaceflight Record; Spacewalk Preps, News Conference on
Tap Today *
S117-E-07052 --- Sunita Williams uses a computer in the Unity node Image
above: Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, STS-117 mission specialist, uses a
computer in the Unity node of the International Space Station during
flight day five activities while Space Shuttle Atlantis was docked with
the station. Image credit: NASA
TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
Early this morning, Mission Specialist Suni Williams set the record for
the longest-duration single spaceflight by a woman. The workday schedule
for Williams and her crewmates is filled with cargo transfers, spacewalk
preparations and the Joint Crew News Conference.
Williams passed the previous record of 188 days, 4 hours at 1:47 a.m.
EDT as the STS-117 and Expedition 15 crew members slept aboard space
shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station. Williams began her
spaceflight in December when she traveled to the station with STS-116.
She served six months as a space station crew member. The previous
record was set by Shannon Lucid on a mission to the Russian Mir space
station and had stood since 1996.
The crews will get ready for STS-117’s fourth spacewalk by preparing
tools and spacesuits that will be used by Mission Specialists Patrick
Forrester and Steven Swanson. They will also review procedures for the
spacewalk, which was added to the schedule after the STS-117 crew
arrived at the station. The excursion is set to begin at 1653 UTC Sunday.
The crews will transfer cargo between Atlantis and the station before
holding the news conference at 7:43 tonight. The conference will be
aired live on NASA TV.
*Russian Flight Controllers Send Commands to Computers*
Efforts to bring the Russian navigation computers back to full operation
will continue today. Friday, Russian flight controllers and the station
crew were able to power-up two lanes of the Russian Central Computer and
two lanes of the Terminal Computer by using a jumper cable to bypass a
faulty secondary power switch.
Flight controllers began sending commands overnight to restart some
systems. The Central Computer is now communicating with the U.S. command
and control computer, and the Terminal Computer is communicating with
U.S. navigation computers. The plan calls for more system restarts today.
The Russian navigation computers provide backup attitude control and
orbital altitude adjustments. For now, the station’s control moment
gyroscopes are handling attitude control, with the shuttle’s propulsion
system providing backup.
*STS-117 Mission*
+ The Crew
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/index.html>
+ The Mission
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/mission_overview.html>
+ The Integrated Truss Structure
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/its.html>
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